The present invention relates generally to the field of precut building structures providing a centralized area for locating utility lines for connecting to appliances provided in rooms radiating outwardly from the utility storage area.
With the dwindling availability of fresh water, clean air and other resources, such as coal, oil and lumber, along with the ever increasing number of people inhabiting this planet requiring more energy and mobility; thereby, creating more pollution, as well as requiring more housing, over and above housing replacement and housing losses due to war and natural disasters, there is a need to incorporate into a precut shippable utility core, for installation into new or existing small structures, all the environmentally correct and resource friendly utilities and appliances. No dwelling should be constructed without thought to conserving water and utilizing renewable resources to the fullest. Thus, it is desirable to retrofit existing housing with rainwater collectors and cisterns for the gathering and storage of rainwater.
Although there have been many types of residential utility cores on the market over the years, most were designed as raw plumbing to be installed within a standard existing room wall or were incorporated into the construction of the original room wall. Many of the prior cores incorporated existing heat/air and hot water units, pipes, ducts, and fixtures. Some cores were complete utility rooms, bathrooms or kitchens, and all were prefabricated offering few options. Therefore, each core had to be hauled to the site on a specific timetable to be installed during construction of the building. All cores were too large to be easily installed in existing buildings. None are known to be specifically designed to house, if desired, state of the art environmentally safe and resource friendly utilities or designed as a complete precut residential utility core, capable of being shipped with customized utilities, appliances and fixtures to meet requirements of any given location and assembled on site in new construction or existing buildings.
My invention is designed to provide a bathroom/kitchen to small structures whether the location provides municipal water, electricity and sanitary sewers or is installed in housing in third world countries where none of those services are provided.
A number of U.S. patents have been granted on various combinations of prefabricated units arranged to be placed within the building walls. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,313 discloses a pre-fabricated module that includes utilities. The U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,653,357 and 4,655,011 locate the plumbing along with fixtures in the complete rooms to be shipped to the site. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,741 discloses a generally circular arrangement with multiple compartments surrounding the central utility core for sewer, water, gas or electrical hook-ups. Likewise, the published Patent Application US02/0116879A1 discloses multiple compartments arranged around a central core designed to contain duct work, conduit, vents, pipes and other utility apparatus. The U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,366 discloses a modular unit which may be fabricated at a remote site.
One embodiment of the present invention is a modular utility core for shipping in a disassembled state to a building site for use and then being assembled atop a floor. The core includes a rigid outer cage with outer cage bottom ends. Outer cage mounting fittings on the outer cage bottom ends fixedly mount the leveled and shimmed outer cage to the floor. A utility channel inner cage is provided within the outer cage. A plurality of structural walls are connected to and extended outwardly from the inner cage toward and are connected to the outer cage forming rooms including a bathroom. The outer cage and the inner cage further include a kitchen located outwardly of the outer cage with the bathroom and kitchen each including appliances/fixtures located between the outer cage and the inner cage and between the walls for controlling flow of fresh water and sewage water. Fresh water conveying conduits are within the inner cage and are connected to the appliances/fixtures in the bathroom and kitchen. Vent conduits within the inner cage are connected to sewage water conveying conduits allowing outward venting thereof.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a precut utility core for installation into small building structures.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a construction centrally locating various utilities with rooms provided therearound and extending radially therefrom.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a condensed arrangement of rooms positioned around a central utility core minimizing the cost of construction.
A further object of this invention is to provide a utility core which can be retrofitted and customized.
Related objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description.